Pilsner + Bannanas = Happiness

---

The first week has been amazing... It´s a thousand times more beautiful than I imagined it would be. I´m in the capital now (Quito), which lies in a valley with 5000m high mountains and volcanoes surrounding it. The city is filled with amazing parks, churches and plazas. It´s so easy to just spend the days wandering this place. The weather is a perpetually spring like climate, always 20c and sunny with some rain. The food is great, and everything is, relatively, very cheap. Fresh fruit from the jungle is amazing and costs only pennies, so for me it´s paradise! Beer is the same price as water here (65 cents for a 1L bottle), and authentic soccer jerseys cost $6. (E-mail me the team and size if you want one!)

Most of time so far I´ve spent in or around Quito, a few days ago we (myself + other backpackers) did an amazing mountainbike tour of Parque Nacional Cotopaxi. Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world, at 5,987m. We reached 5000m (the base of the glacier) before biking down the side of it and across the park. I didn´t realize it was possible to travel that quickly on a bike, our guide just told us ¨You only need know BRAKE... and BALANCE¨. He was right, there was no chance to pedal, all you could do was hope that your brakes slow you enough for the next switchback. I was lucky enough to make it down with only 20 or 30 close calls, but a few others took some pretty rough falls.

Being here in the mountains is amazing, but I feel the coast calling. Maybe toight or tomorrow I´ll head to Montanita to try my legs at surfing. A couple other guys from the hostel I´m at now are eager to get to the beaches too, but we´re still working up the will power to leave behind free rum and coke night where we´re staying. (Every Mon, Wed and Fri!) The sign on the wall reads ¨Bottles of Rum Record: 27. Set: July 1st¨- I´m guessing some canucks were there for that one. It´s a daunting challenge, but our determination to break said record last night only led to puking and 14 hours of sleep. My last memory was mixing the 3rd bucket with a swiss guy. 5 bottles rum, 2 bottles of coke. Fuck...

Anyway, so far the vacation is great, Ecuadorian people are extrememly friendly (especially the girls) and I´m learning Spanish surprisingly fast. I´ve been hiking and moutainbiking through the Sierra and plan on surfing the pacific coast soon. Then it´ll be back east, for rafting in the Amazon. It´s going to be hard to leave, I´d love to stay a lot longer.

---

Photos

La Basilica
First photo from Ecuador

La Basilica
Stainglass Window Inside La Basilica

La Basilica
Rose Window Inside La Basilica

La Basilica
The bell towers are 78m high. At the very top, there´s a small opening so you could actually crawl out and stand on the edge of the tower for an amazing view of the city.

La Basilica
The Spaniard who designed this place (as with many of the churches here) was intent on building over indiginous locations of religious significance, in support of their mass-conversion. Seems to have worked, as 90% of Ecuadorians are now catholic.

At La Plaza Grande
These little kids are adorable! My boots are filthy, so I´m asked 100 times a day if I want them shined. They were fun to hang out with, but the sneaky little bastards wipe shoe polish on your hand with a faux ¨handshake goodbye¨. haha pretty clever I guess..

La Mitad del Mundo
The centre of the earth! Can´t be a tourist without a visit to the Equator. The dozen frenchmen who first made the measurements built this huge monument in honour of... themselves? Hah, typical.

Museo De Sitio Inti-Nan
Or the Inti-Nan Museum of the Sun. This, supposedly, is the REAL Equator, a 15 min. walk from the French one. With GPS they realized it was actually a few hundred metres further down the road. Included in our tour was the chance to balance an egg on the tip of a nail, a feat apparently only do-able where the magical gravitational forces of the earth collapse and cancel eachother out! Hah well it´s entertaining anyway... Also demonstrated was the water draining straight down on the line, and in opposite directions in the two different hemispheres. And they only had to move the bucket 5 ft!

En route to Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
We stopped in a small village for breakfast on our way to Cotopaxi, and this was the view a little ways up the road. More food than I could eat for $1.30 US.

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
The pine trees you see in the background are of course, not native. They were introduced from California to support Ecuador´s logging industry, but double as a buffer zone for the National Park as well.

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
On our way up the volcano we stopped at this lagoon that was created during the last eruption. Scientists say they are due for another big one within the next 10 years, but ¨not today¨ our guide tells us.

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
It´s hard to see, but that is Cotopaxi shrouded in clouds. Just follow the edge that´s visible and you can imagine where the peak lies within the clouds. We rode from the base of the glacier to where I took this photo, then a few more hours through the park and out the North Gate, on the other side of the park. Being on top of that mountain, the view was easily the most beautiful thing I´ve ever seen in my life. (Still looking into ascending the summit. Takes several days and more $ than I have right now though..)

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
By pure luck, this isn´t my hip. You really feel like you cheated death though when you hit those turns at 70km/h and skid six inches past the sheer drop at some spots. As it was explained to me, only in a country so completely devoid of any and all safety regulations is such fun so possible and affordable!

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
Typical scenery during the rest of our bike trip. Every corner we rounded was just breathtaking views. I don´t know how many times I stopped to watch a herd of wild llamas, horses or cows pass by with the mountains in the background.

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
At this small glacial run-off stream is where we stopped for lunch. You could drink the water straight from the stream, well if you wanted to..

Parque Nacional Cotopaxi
Deep in thought on top of a boulder. We rode through fields of these, all thrown from the top of the volcano when it last erupted.

Parque De La Carolina (Quito)
I spent yesterday wandering the northern end of the city, and passed through Quito´s largest park. Within the park they also have a huge botanical garden, with about a million different cactus plants.

Parque De La Carolina (Quito)
I just thought it was a nice cloud. Well I think it looks like something, no? Screw you.

Comments

[Roz]

braden, i hate you

[Diana]

hot damn!
that ride down the Cotopaxi must have been mad! I would probably be scared shitless... and be laughing the whole way. Jealous is the only other word that springs to mind. Take care.

[andrea]

you lucky lucky bastard ...be careful though and come back in one piece

[joslyn and che]

yo yo yo
braden, all that touristy shit looks ok, but you gotta go meet some local women or goats or somethin! no but seriously do your own thing. I love you, -joslyn and che

[Biggest Bro]

Nice
Glad you didn't fall off the cliff. What's this I hear about war with Colombia. Maybe you can go rafting through the gunfire.

[Ali]

the cloud looks like a goat! dont worry man... i see it too

[Tahira]

why did'nt you bring me?
lol. Damn boy. that looks like it must have been a freakin sweet trip. Pretty amazing. So did you break the record? lol. where's your next trip, hummmmmmm hot shot? hahha. lucky bum. well have fun. Tahira.

[damien]

good adventure
glad you went, now all you gotta do is find out how to go back. -d